If You're Thinking of Living in:; Flatiron District

By DAVID S. HAWKINS

Published: October 30, 1988

Lou Jawitz can remember when few people wanted to live in the area known as the Flatiron District. ''When I moved here in 1967, they were giving lofts away,'' he said. ''All I had to do to get my first loft was to get my hair cut and pay $275 a month.'' Without the haircut, he said, the landlord would have charged him $300.

Mr. Jawitz, a 45-year-old photographer, has seen his neighborhood change from a quiet haunt of photographers who lived and worked in the expansive lofts left behind by long-departed department stores and light industries to one of New York City's most sought-after areas. He now pays $700 a month.

Real estate agents no longer cloak their Flatiron properties behind labels of ''near Gramercy Park'' or ''Chelsea area.'' Apartment hunters now ask for the Flatiron by name. Some people have even taken to calling the area ''Sofi,'' for south of Flatiron, as if to give it SoHo-like airs.

The district, sometimes known also as the Photo District, takes its name from the wedge-shaped Flatiron Building at 23d Street and Broadway, which crowns the neighborhood like a sorcerer's cap. The building was the first in the city with a steel skeleton. At a dizzying 21 stories, it was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1902.

''There used to be no reason for anyone to live here except for photographers, who needed the space,'' said Mr. Jawitz, who lives near Fifth Avenue on 17th Street. ''There were no stores, except ones that sold photography supplies. I used to walk to Third Avenue just for a carton of milk.''

Corner delicatessens are now common and gourmet food stores do brisk business on 23d Street and Fifth Avenue. Produce is sold at a farmers' market in Union Square on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Photo studios, supply stores and labs are still in evidence, as are a variety of light industries, such as furniture and toy manufacturers. Novelty stores selling gewgaws of all sorts can still be found on Broadway; they now share the streets with banks, drugstores, laundries and other residential necessities.

Interest in the neighborhood is a result of several factors, according to realtors. First, there are few available apartments in the more traditionally residential neighborhoods of Gramercy Park, to the east, and Chelsea, to the west. Second, people who want a large amount of space but cannot afford SoHo prices can find it in the Flatiron District's converted lofts.

Perhaps most importantly, nightclubs and restaurants in search of lower rents in Manhattan have opened in the last few years, bringing in excitement and glamour.

Glamour is not new to the district. Between the Civil War and World War I, all New York and much beyond it came to shop here. From the venerable R.H. Macy's on 14th Street to the long-gone Stern Bros. on 23d Street, Sixth Avenue was a valley of block-long retailing giants. Broadway, between Union and Madison Squares, was lined with elegant hotels, restaurants and shops, among them Lord & Taylor, at 20th Street, and Gorham silversmiths, on 19th. The half-mile stretch of Broadway from 14th to 23d Street was dubbed ''The Ladies' Mile'' after its fashionable patrons.

Many of these turn-of-the-century buildings remain intact, some in a better state of repair than others. The city Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering creating a Ladies' Mile Historic District to preserve these Gilded-Age structures.

Strollers along the sidestreets in the Flatiron District can find the recreated Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace at 28 East 20th Street, between Broadway and Park Avenue South. Roosevelt was born in a house at the site in 1858, but the building was demolished. The present building, built in 1921, is a reproduction of the original with Roosevelt memorabilia and artifacts. The house is open to the public Wednesday to Sunday from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. (For information, call 260-1616.) The Old Town Bar and Restaurant, on 18th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South, has been a local watering hole since 1897. The bar, with mahogany booths upholstered in green leather, maintains much of its 19th century atmosphere. Since the television show ''Late Night with David Letterman'' began including scenes from the bar in its opening last February, the bar has become somewhat of a tourist spot on weekends.

New bars and lively, sometimes tony restaurants - Union Square Cafe and the Metropolis Cafe on Union Square West, Sofi on Fifth Avenue and America, 20-20, L'Escale, Lola and Manila on the side streets - have drawn young crowds at night, giving the neighborhood the prestige that usually presages gentrification.

The latest places to see-and-be-seen change faster than the seasons. Clubs such as Limelight and Stringfellow's have have given way to restaurants with bar scenes such as 20-20, Cafe Society and Club Iguana as customers seemingly seek the longest lines in which to stand.

''The clubs have definitely attracted a lot of attention to the area,'' said Pamela Liebman of Corcoran Group Downtown, a real estate firm with properties in the area.